live in Lincoln (2005)

live show

Lincoln, Nebraska is a far cry from the "punk city" status of a place like Boston or Los Angeles. In fact, my town serves as little more than a rest stop for touring bands to get gas, stock up on Slim-Jims and have conversations along the lines of "Man, I'm glad I don't live here." Needless to say, we don't get as many shows as we'd like to, but when a band does decide to book a show in one of our humble venues, we are very appreciative and show up in force. While Midwestern punk scenes lack the bragging rights and reputations of our brother scenes on the East and West coasts, the geographical direness of our situation only affirms cohesion within the scene and passionate appreciation for the music that runs through its veins.

Millions of Dead Cops, the seminal hardcore act from the 1980s, was kind enough to grace our stage with their presence during their Fall tour of this year. They did not bring any opening bands with them, and the two bands that opened up the show are local bands that you've never heard of and probably don't care about, so we'll just skip right to Dave Dictor and his crew.

The full original lineup of MDC took the stage shortly after the second opener finished their set, and after a brief introduction, started the show with "Greedy and Pathetic," which sparked the first of many circle pits that would take place that evening. Though the band is now comprised of four middle-aged men, each of whom are probably old enough to be your father, you wouldn't know it if you heard the music. The intensity of this band has not diminished with age; every note was dead-on and every snare drum snap was right on target. Dave Dictor, MDC's garrulous frontman, kept the crowd laughing with his smart-ass quips on current events, dedicating the song "Business on Parade" to Haliburton, and performing a lounge-y a cappella rendition of "Chicken Squawk" while the guitarist fixed a broken string. The bulk of MDC's twenty-something-long set list was pulled from their older releases, including staples such as "Born to Die," "Corporate Deathburger," "Church and State," "I Hate Work," "Radioactive Chocolate" and "Dead Cops." Their newer material, such as "Destroying the Planet" and "Nazis Shouldn't Drive," was well-received and reciprocated with pumped fists and churning mosh pits. After closing the set with "I Remember," Dave and the boys migrated to the merch booth to hand out stickers and meet their fans.

MDC delighted all of their old fans that night and made a few new ones. If you haven't heard of these guys, go and pick up one of their albums in the next 24 hours or I will be forced to take 25 scene points off of your scene-boy scorecard.

Oh, and to everyone who knows somebody in a punk rock/hardcore band, tell them to come to Nebraska. Punk does the most damage in the reddest of states.